Congress MP K.V. Thomas, in a written question in the Lok Sabha, had asked if the government had been urged to issue a White Paper on the Rafale deal by "defence experts as well as some political leaders", and its reaction.

Minister of State for Defence Subhash Bhamre replied in the negative to both the questions. "No such proposal has been received," Bhamre said.

In a reply in the Rajya Sabha earlier, Bhamre had said that no price was arrived at in the previous deal, which never saw a conclusion.

"It had not been possible to finalise the terms and condition for acquiring the 126 aircraft even after a protracted process from the period of issue of Request for Proposal (RFP) in 2007 to the unsuccessful commercial negotiations up to 2014," the Minister had said.

The opposition party has claimed that the fighter jets are being bought at a price higher than what was negotiated in the previous MMRCA deal wherein 126 jets were to be bought -- the deal included assembly of a number of fighters in India.

The government has maintained that the price India is getting under the Inter-Government Agreement is lesser than the MMRCA deal and, citing security concerns, has refused to reveal the price arrived at.

--IANS

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